Tag Archives: Intellectual Giftedness

Haters, haters, haters: they will always keep on hating,
So, give exactlyzero fucks to what they say, and keep creating.
Dream so big and weird, that everyone will think you’re “nuts,”
Then, laugh until it makes you cry, while counting up your bucks.

Enjoy what you have earned… After all, you do deserve it,
But don’t forget the little guy who’s thinking he’s not worth it.
For some reason, he didn’t walk the “recommended” path,
Plus, Life’s a ‘number’s game;’ he just got left out in the math.

A day, not long ago, that lonely lunatic was you!
Remember how it felt thinking there’s nothing you could do?
You’ve finally made it to the promised land, why ever leave?
The goal was never wealth, but getting hopeless to believe.

Wikipedia is great.

I take everything with a grain of salt, whether it be a wiki page or a well-respected book by a so-called “expert.”

I have learned so much from Wikipedia, that I don’t mind if a couple of the fine details are off. It’s opened up my mind to subject matters that I otherwise never would have touched.

For me, as a polymath / aspiring polymath, it’s all about breadth of knowledge, not depth. My “Cliff Notes knowledge” of a million subjects wins out over a specialist’s extreme details, any day.

Connecting the Dots

This is because my strength is not being super-detailed or specialized, but in being able to make out-of-this world connections between unrelated subjects. This ability allows me to walk into a room of experts and see solutions to problems that they never would have dreamed of. They still get to do the detail work that makes it actually function, but I produce the idea that enables them to get started (or the solution that allows them to get unstuck).

Autodidact

I have a double major in marketing and consumer science, as well as a minor in sociology from a legit college. I can honestly say that I’ve learned more about those subjects, too, from self-learning online.

College was a complete waste of time, not to mention that it screwed me over financially, due to student loans. I had to have that “piece of paper” that was supposed to land me jobs: I want to set fire to it.

Your Experience May Vary

Not to brag, but to be fair to readers of this post: I have an IQ of 170, and my personality type is an ENTP (“The Creative Inventor”). This means that not only am I technically a genius (in the 99.9998467663 percentile), but my personality type means I am primarily driven by curiosity. So, not everyone is built to be a generalist. Specialists are needed and serve an important function in society. However, there will continue to be a rise of generalists, due to technological evolution.

Dr. House is portrayed as the kind of genius that gets to be a jerk and buck the system because he’s just that good. He uses deductive reasoning of the Sherlock Holmes type to solve complicated medical cases.

Though he seems to value as the most important thing in life, he frequently (and, very occasionally, admittedly) uses it to manipulate himself and others more than to create a truly consistent logical system for everything.

His somewhat random and energetic behavior is not really indicative of a IJ temperament in any sense.

Though highly confrontational, he is decidedly manipulative, rather than physical. His aggression seems intellectual in nature, and his aim is to be recognized as smart and correct, rather than powerful and in control.

His best friend Wilson appears to be an SEI and SLI who compulsively befriends “needy” individuals.

With their creative talents, gifted individuals can make a useful contribution to innovations within organizations. Highly gifted individuals possess many more creative possibilities than the average gifted person.

To make use of their innovative ideas and to implement them, however, an effective interaction between gifted individuals and their work environment is essential.

How do gifted individuals contribute to innovation?

The gifted individual can easily identify the relationships between goals, missions, and assignments.

The gifted individual has the ability to focus intensely on the content.

Arguments based on content are key.

Habits, traditions and social pressure are quickly spotted. If these seem to be in conflict with the content, they are discarded as being irrelevant.

Thinking ‘outside of the box’ is second nature to them.

Switching between one’s own professional area and other disciplines is no problem at all.

The opinion of a formal authority does not weigh any heavier than the opinion of another party.

Information from others is checked against one’s own experience or against other information.

The gifted individual has a high degree of commitment and passion.

Existing protocols, structures and approaches are only followed if they seem to be effective and are well-founded.

A customized solution is sought for each individual situation, often when this has not been requested. ‘Standard problems’ are also approached in this way.

Favorable environmental factors required for making use of these contributions are listed below. The favorable characteristics listed correspond strongly with the ‘task culture’ and ‘person culture,’ while the unfavorable characteristics correspond with the ‘role culture’ or ‘power culture’ from “Harrison’s typologies of organizational culture.”

Favorable and Unfavorable Organizational Characteristics for the Gifted

Favorable organizational characteristics:

Flexibility.

Little hierarchy.

Few procedures (only if they are useful).

The development and needs of employees are of importance.

Room for productive conflicts.

Power and influence can be acquired through expertise, dedication and success (or, at most, through personality, ability and outstanding performances).

Unfavorable organizational characteristics:

Procedures determine the work.

Power and influence are predominantly dependent upon your position.

The development and needs of the employee are of little importance.

Conflicts are often avoided.

How can giftedness be recognized?

If an employee arrives at your consulting room, how do you recognize the above-mentioned characteristics of giftedness?

Wide interest in all kinds of fields (curious and passionate).

Sensitive to, such as, noise at work (highly sensitive).

Can speak passionately about a subject that interests him or her, starts speaking more quickly, the eyes light up, makes agitated gestures (passionate).

Quick analyses of the work situation: ‘that’s how it works’ (highly intelligent).

Focussed primarily on the content of the work (highly intelligent).

Wants to work in his/her own way (autonomous).

Wants to see a lot of variety in the work (creation-directed).

Produces unorthodox solutions that are not generally accepted (sparkling original).

Focus points for the problem analysis

Gifted individuals suffer relatively often from stress and burnout. Factors that can be of influence here are the nature of the work (sufficient challenge), the degree of autonomy and the defining of borders. Gifted employees are especially passionate and have the tendency to insufficiently specify their own limits.

Bullying, or other forms of aggression: because a gifted individual does not fit the requirements of the ‘average’ employee. As a result, fear/anxiety disorders may arise.

Depressive feelings often start at an early age. Gifted individuals can therefore more easily feel lonely and isolated.

Fear of failure as a result of setting the bar high and the tendency to perfectionism.

The gifted individual can come across as having ADHD. The combination of giftedness and ADHD is not uncommon.

Gifted individuals have a high sensitivity for odors and sounds.

They more quickly experience certain circumstances as being a hindrance.

It’s well known among researchers of the gifted, talented, and creative that these individuals exhibit greater intensity and increased levels of emotional, imaginational, intellectual, sensual, and psychomotor excitability and that this is a normal pattern of development. It is because these gifted children and adults have a finely tuned psychological structure and an organized awareness that they experience all of life differently and more Intensely than those around them.

These characteristics, however, are frequently perceived by psychotherapists and others as evidence of a mental disturbance, because most of the population lacks accurate information about
the special characteristics of gifted individuals, couples and families. Most people don’t know that what is considered normal for the gifted is most often labeled as neurosis in the general population and as a result, the gifted are personally and emotionally vulnerable to a variety of unique relationship difficulties at home, work, school and in the community.

Since the gifted function with relatively high levels of intensity and sensitivity, when they seek therapy they are frequently misdiagnosed, because therapists receive no specialized training in the identification and treatment of persons who have advanced and complex patterns of development.

Therapeutic assessment of gifted persons with asynchronous development, heightened levels of awareness, energy and emotional response, and an intense level of inner turmoil often results in their developmental transition being mislabeled as a personality or attention disorder.

Histrionic, dysthymic, cyclothymic, borderline, narcissistic, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) are a few of the diagnostic labels mistakenly used to describe normative stages of positive disintegration. The results of this type of misdiagnosis can range from benign neglect to misguided counseling strategies that invalidate and attempt to ‘normalize’ the complex inner process of the gifted. When misdiagnosed gifted clients are prescribed medication to suppress the “symptoms of giftedness” there is the danger that the wonderful inner fury of the gifted process will be neutralized, thus minimizing the potential for a life of accomplishment and fulfillment.

As a result, those who have the most to offer society are the least likely to get their therapeutic needs met.

For the gifted, inner conflict is a developmental rather than a degenerative sign, because it drives the gifted person forward to replace current ways of thinking and being with those of higher level development. This type of positive disintegration is characterized by an intensified inner tension between what one is and what one could be. This dynamic tension is what fuels the creative person’s complex inner life and provides the impetus for growth and development. Any therapist who works with a gifted population must be familiar with these internal processes, which are utilized to develop advanced potential – otherwise, the therapist risks inflicting further psychological damage.

When working with the gifted, a therapist must address the following interpersonal issues: the internal stress of being gifted; the emotional trauma of rapid development; the effects of introversion, intensity, perfectionism and extraordinary sensitivity on self and others; the recognition of the symptoms of insufficient mental engagement; the importance of interacting with other gifted persons, and channeling and focusing an abundance of physical, sensual, intellectual and emotional energy.

Unique interpersonal challenges that gifted individuals, couples and families encounter during their life span include learning to interact in the mainstream world; manage expectations and pressures to fit the norm; defuse unconscious hostility, resentment, antagonism and sabotage directed at them because they are perceived as intellectually, creatively or personally advantaged; set appropriate boundaries for the utilization of their abilities; collaborate with others, and manage the daily dilemmas of giftedness involving relatives, bosses, co-workers, neighbors, counselors, teachers and other members of the community.

To be blunt, I’m a creative genius that took a “unique” path in life. I had a kid in high school and so didn’t go to Harvard as I had planned (not that I really hold any traditional education up with high regard, anyways). I got a job at a local restaurant, simply because I needed a source of income.

I moved up the ladder ridiculously quick. I was recruited to run a start-up restaurant, which I opened with massive success (designing every process, hiring every employee, developing managers, creating the marketing, watching the accounting). I had a falling out with the owner, as he no longer needed someone to design the systems that had already been designed (he replaced me with himself).

I stumbled for a while as I finished a degree, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I got a job as a marketing manager, but most of my work was truly of a strategic, behind-the-scenes nature. I innovated entire departments using creative solutions. I was able to use my cross-functional, multi-industry experience to see things from a fresh perspective.

As I looked for work, I became reattached to my roots as a creative problem solver. I was reminded of the work I did as a child and the large-scale of impact I could have.

I became limitless, again, but I didn’t know exactly where to fully use this potential or how to prove what I was capable of. So, I network with people I see potential in, and I post what I’m thinking about. I await for someone with means to see in me what I see in others: their true potential.

It’s not ideal, sitting and waiting, and it’s rather frustrating, so I apply for certain jobs. But, from the bottom of my heart, I believe that my greatest potential will be noticed by someone looking at a wider portrait than merely a resume or CV. It’s how I would recruit for someone like me.

Different parts of my mind go to battle with each other, and then they construct new bridges to mend the dissonance they created.

As a result, a new layer of understanding emerges that didn’t previously exist.

Sitting atop this new layer, radiant and obvious, is the solution.

The more complex and challenging the issue, the more useful having this ability is:

Watching me tie my shoes or get ready to go out for the evening is amusing. I come across as a clumsy, scattered-brained moron.

Being in the right environment is crucial.

Now, take a room filled with the most talented people in the world, trying to solve an impossible problem or create an entirely new way of doing things.

They may be completely stuck in a deadlock. They may be ready to give up entirely. Put me in that same room for a little while, and it’s like witnessing magic.

Groups and a Diversity of Opinions

Other people, especially with a diverse set of opinions, to bounce ideas off of, only multiplies what already happens in my mind.

In a group situation, it may take some time to process and readjust the patterns of thought, based on the input of others. However, what it really provides is more elements to play with and more dots to connect: a bigger playground.

Out of Nowhere

Despite being the person with perhaps the least topic-oriented experience, I will typically see that one connection hidden in everyone’s blind spot.

Somewhere in that same general area, the solution to their problem will present itself.

Environment

It’s quite a powerful ability, but it’s something I only can direct or shape, not something I have complete control over.

It’s not a matter of how it’s chosen to be utilized, but where it’s placed.

Archives

Search

In in instant, both people would immediately not just know every thought and action each other has ever had. They would actually have experienced it (as far as they know).

Now, imagine that same technology scaled large enough to “sync” every single person on the planet, for 60 seconds.

Instant Global Awakening.

For geeks, think of:

Telepathy (aka Professor X).

Vulcan Mind Meld.

It’s the same thing, but instead of cool but impossible magic powers (Trust me that would be “Plan A,” but my extensive research of trying to grab the remote control using “The Force,” isn’t looking very promising at the moment.

However, we can invent… and as impossible as this idea sounds, it could be done, with immense R&D, a bottomless pit of money, and a lifetime.

Most (or all) of the people starting the project would never live to see the result, but it would give your life purpose. We’d be building heaven, but never get to go…

What about our kids?

…and theirs?

Randomly thought of that… the same effect is happening with the gradual extinction of privacy, and our ability to instantly communicate.

It’d still be faster, but then you run into:

Is it wrong to force everyone to do something once, if it means putting an end to so much pain? Who gets to make that decision?